What’s important to you?

There are days when you feel that you get nothing done. There are days when it feels that all you’ve been doing is running around putting out little fires everywhere. You’ve been reacting to the whims of everyone around you all day long.

Those days are exhausting. They drain your energy and leave you feeling flustered and frustrated. Having several such days in a row can be paralyzing. A feeling of being stuck can creep up on you and add to the paralyzing effect. Before you know it, you’re digging a hole that is getting deeper for every passing day and there’s no longer a ladder long enough to pull you out.

You have to stop digging before that hole turns into an abyss. Adopt a mindset of acting rather than reacting. Instead of putting out little fires everywhere, make sure that none get started in the first place.

You have to make time for you. For doing the things you want to be doing. Sure, you need to take your kids to ballet classes and soccer. Sure, you need to visit your old grandmother in the hospital. Sure, you need to buy the groceries. But, you also have to make time for you.

In general, men are a lot better at making time for themselves than women. Women tend to take on a much larger burden of the “We need to buy a present for the kid’s teacher”; “We need to bake for the tournament this weekend”; “We need to prepare for a birthday party”; or any of the little things that need to coordinated and carried out.

With a little bit of realistic planning and setting the right priorities, you can find time every day for you. Examine the day ahead of you, decide what can be accomplished and what simply has to wait for another day. Be true to yourself. Don’t set yourself up for failure by adding too much into your day. If you do so, you’ll end up feeling inadequate, since you didn’t accomplish everything you set out to do. You’ll be digging that hole deeper and deeper.

Stop before it gets too deep! Stop while you still have a ladder that’s long enough to help you climb out of that hole. Take control of the situation and take it one step at the time. What’s the next urgent thing that needs to be solved? Is it really that urgent? Is it really that important? Truly important? When you think about it, there aren’t that many things that have to be solved in an instant.

Take control of your day. Take control of your life. Don’t let others decide what you get to do or say. Make your own priorities. What’s important to you?